MP echoes US concern over defence cuts

Former defence minister
Joel Fitzgibbon
is the second Labor MP to break ranks over the federal government’s severe May budget defence cuts, echoing US concerns that Australian spending has fallen too far.

Mr Fitzgibbon said he believed Australia needed to spend at least 2 per cent of gross domestic product, given it was in a growing region. Australia’s defence spending is expected to slip to 1.56 per cent this year after $5.5 billion in cuts were imposed in the May budget.

Head of US Pacific Command Admiral Samuel Locklear said in June that he believed an adequate spending level was more like 2.5 per cent.

Australia’s defence budget and the looming US fiscal cliff are both likely to be discussed when Defence Minister
Stephen Smith
and Foreign Minister
Bob Carr
meet their US counterparts Leon Panetta and Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton
in Perth on Wednesday.

Labor Right MP
Michael Danby
told The Australian Financial Review in October of “genuine backbench concern over defence cuts" in the ALP.

On Saturday, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell expressed concern over the budget and whether the US could count on Australia.